Final Prophet: Christ Alone

Are you ready to gird your feet with the gospel? All right, so we're at Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses 15 through 19 or through sorry, 22. So we're going to Deuteronomy 18 verses 15 through 22. This is the end of Deuteronomy 18. Now we're going to talk about a prophet that's going to come after Moses. Deuteronomy 18 verses 15 to the end of the chapter.
All right, let's have some coffee and get into God's word. You got a little taste of coffee next thing you know you're gonna have chest hairs. Oh come on man come on man It's okay someday someday, maybe you'll grow up All right, you ready to pray? Lord, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. Thank you for time together to read your word. And we pray that your spirit work in our hearts. Help us to know who you are and walk in your ways in Jesus's name. Amen. All right. Deuteronomy, chapter 18, beginning at verse 15. You want to read the first paragraph or the second? I'll read 15 to 17. OK, good.
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your breath. Him you shall hear according to all you desire. According to all you desired. Of the Lord your God. the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire any more lest I die. The Lord said to me, What they have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren, and he will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
It shall be that whoever will not hear my words, which he speaks in my name, I will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, how should we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or comes to or come to pass, that is a thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.
OK, so we got three questions. A. What is this about? B is for summarize.
C. Oh, I prayed before. Do you want to pray for us again? OK, we prayed.
OK, so what do you think this is about? Who's next? OK, yeah, so Moses is going to die soon, right? They know that. So what what promises Lord make? Hmm. Yeah, there's going to be a new prophet. Now, interestingly. Oh, I got a spiderweb on my microphone, a stick on my chin. There's a there's going to be a new prophet, right?
And remember, verse 16, according to all you desired of the Lord, your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly. They asked God, right? There's a quotation here. Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord, my God, nor let me see his great fire anymore lest I die. That's what the people said.
And so God used Moses as a prophet. So who's going to be the prophet next? OK, maybe in the short term is Joshua. But this is actually one of those places where it seems like there's a hope that there's going to be a great prophet like Moses again. Now, there's a sense in which Joshua is somewhat like that.
Right. Moses, part of the Red Sea. Joshua parts the Jordan River. Right. Moses leads the people out of Egypt. Joshua leads them into the promised land. But there's kind of seems to be this hope. Even all the way to the New Testament, where they even asked John the Baptist, are you the prophet? Yeah, because he's there looking back to this. Right.
And the Lord said to me, look at specifically at verse starting at verse 17. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren, and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear my words, which he speaks in my name, I will require it of him. So it seems like he's speaking of some great prophet who's going to rise up.
And 22 is faith. Hmm. Yeah. 22 is, is kind of a litmus test, isn't it? If you think that's going to happen, does it happen? Probably not. Exactly. The funny thing is when I heard like, you should not be afraid of him, I was like, but he's not saying that's like, Well, the word there is fear you shall not fear him Well, no, it means right if he's a false prophet and he's going to tell you things and it's not true And he's not actually speaking for the Lord. Don't fear him. Don't fear his words. He's a he's a quack. He's a junk He's actually used but did you notice what it said in verse 20? Especially if he's speaking the names of other gods, what are you supposed to do? Yeah.
I'm always somewhat like when there are people who walk around churches today and they say that they're prophets for God and they have some type of word from the Lord and they're going to tell people what's going to happen. Like remember when you and I were listening to some of the histories of stuff that was going on with cults in the 1800s in America? Did the stuff happen that their prophets say were going to happen? And yet people continue to follow these cults.
And this is a pretty helpful litmus test. So somebody gives you a date and they say, by 1875, the whole world's going to be, and then it doesn't happen. Probably not the best guy to be listening to Not from the Lord don't listen to him throw it away It's really helpful for a lot of things it is yeah, so somebody says well you should you should vote for me I'll do this and then you just do it OK, so you're going into politics here. You're always going into politics. OK, well, let's go ahead. So this is about right. This this prophet who would raise up who God would raise up. And how do you test the prophets? Right. One, they've got to be speaking in the name of Jehovah. It's got to be in the Lord's name.
If it's any other ones, don't be afraid of them. Actually, in ancient Israel, go ahead and kill them. Right now, do we live in ancient Israel? No, we don't live in ancient Israel. So a little bit different practical application today, but don't fear them.
Turn away from them. All right. So I have in my Bible, best verse, I have verse 19 and 20 underlined. What would you underline in your Bible? You don't know. Oh, thanks. It's good. The whole thing. You can't underline the whole thing. You're sounding like your dad. So it's all like some bosses. Yeah. Well, let's go ahead and jump to see calling. What are we called to do? Let's take it out of ancient Israel and into your life today. How does this have anything to do with how you live or pointing to the covenant or teaching us about Jesus Christ?
Hmm. Well, wasn't Jesus the great prophet? Yeah, that's Jesus. Who's this great prophet? Actually, an interesting thing. Do you know who some people say this was? Muslims will say this is prophesying about Muhammad. But it's clear Jesus thinks that this is talking about him. All which my father has commanded me, I've spoken unto you. Now, Jesus said him to. So I think this is specifically talking about Jesus, even though some people have tried to co-opt it into saying it's their prophet. I think this is talking about Jesus. So we can talk about that. We can look at the Quran sometime later and talk about that.
But point being, it's very clear that the early church understood this. One greater than Moses is here. Who is the one greater than Moses? Jesus, Jesus. Right. This is this is what John the Baptist thought was coming. It was Jesus. And so. OK, so maybe we can listen to Jesus.
Are his words true? Did he say he was going to die? Did he say he was going to raise again from the dead on the third day? Do you do it? Yeah, right. There's all sorts of things that Jesus has said. Every single one of them has come true. There's only one that hasn't come true yet. The last day. But Jesus set a date, right? He said in in 1988, he was going to come back again. No. He doesn't even. Ah, yeah, not even the son knows where the father actually is. Yeah, he just said it's going to happen. He knew it was going to happen, but he didn't give us a date.
Right, which is how it passes this test, right, because do we know? Did Jesus tell us what to know? So. Can we just continue to be ready? Yeah, yeah, we just continue to be ready, because at any point, maybe he could return. I think there's a whole lot of missions and evangelization, evangelizing that needs to happen before then, but we know it's going to happen someday. He's been true on all the other promises. All right. Ready to pray or you want me to pray? OK.
Lord, thank you for this time together. Thank you for your word. Thank you for sending us Jesus Christ, our prophet, priest and high king. Lord, we pray that you would please let us follow after Jesus. Let us trust his words. Lord, everything that you gave him to do, he did perfectly. And you have called us to listen to him as your beloved son, to obey and follow him. So, Lord, we pray that you would help us do that even now in our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen. May the Lord bless you as you trust that final prophet, Jesus Christ. We'll see you next time. Say bye. Bye. Bye.